Versus (2000): C

Proving the old adage about less being more, Versus piles on so much geektastic pandemonium that it quickly results in sensory overload. Taking an exhausting kitchen-sink approach to genre hybridization, director Ryuhei Kitamura melds yakuza, samurai, and zombie films via this tale of an escaped convict (Tak Sakaguchi) who, having been broken out of jail by a mysterious baddie (Hideo Sakaki), finds himself trying to save a girl (Chieko Misaka) from ruthless gangsters in The Forest of Resurrection, one of 666 portals to the “other side” where the hungry undead roam free. It’s a lunatic scenario that Kitamura drenches in manic humor and mountains of blood, with hacked limbs flying and combatants soaring during hyperactive skirmishes that are part Night of the Living Dead, part The Killer. With only the flimsiest of backstories (involving some Highlander-ish claptrap about immortal warriors) and characters so one-dimensional that they’re not even given names (the final credits list them as Hero, Head Villain, Heroine, etc.), it’s clear that the shamelessly goofy Versus is only after unadulterated hack-and-slash-and-splatter mayhem, an objective at which it technically succeeds. Yet Kitamura’s gonzo flick is overstuffed to the point of nausea, its barrage of gory outrageousness becoming wearisome after the first fifty fatal mutilations, and its cartoonish humor (such as Sakaguchi’s penchant for knocking Misaka unconscious before each battle) more aggressive than amusing.

Comments

[Al Jahid Zibar]

Likening The Killer to Versus is a cinema sin Mr. Schager (two different movies with very different styles). I'm not willing to press charges, but I think you should think about what you've done.